A transfer is value crossing states to finality.
- Created by
- POST /v1/transfers
- Held as
- reserved → released
- Finality
- provider rail
- Reference
- tr_…
event · transfer.settled — the reversal is recorded too.
Reserved first, settled last
When a transfer is created, its value is reserved on the account: held, not yet gone. It is released only when the transfer settles. Until then the money sits in the account's reserved balance, visible and accounted for.
Finality comes from the rail
Alpine submits the transfer to a provider rail and waits. The rail confirms finality (Alpine correlates the provider's own signal); only then is the transfer settled and the value released.
Every step is an event
Each state change — reserved, submitted, awaiting finality, settled — is recorded as an event. A transfer that is returned reverses cleanly, and the reversal is recorded too.
Traced by one reference
A correlation reference threads every event of a transfer, so it can be followed, reconciled, and replayed from the moment it was requested to the moment it was recorded.